Monday, July 14, 2014

I dubbed Day 2 of Susanna and my time in Sydney "aquatic day". It was all underwater adventures, all the time for us on this day.

Due to my "slight" obsession with sharks Susanna knew damn well I would accompany her to the 3D IMAX showing of Great White Shark 3D. I didn't realize before agreeing to see this show that the Darling Harbour IMAX cinema is the biggest theater screen in the world! It's 8 stories high. Eight stories of shark. In 3D! Hell yes!

I must say due to my avid documentary watching there really wasn't anything in the show I didn't already know, but that's the price you pay for being a certified sharkologist, I guess. It was still awesome to see sharks in lifelike 3D, and 8 freaking stories big! It was awesome.

After the movie we went to the Australian National Maritime Museum, which was still on Susanna's To Do list, because it was featuring life-sized photography of whales. Turns out "life-sized" was some serious bullshit - we were expecting 100 foot long photos - but there were some very artistic/pretty totally-not-to-scale whale photos. And a theater where we could relax our tired feed, veg out and watch Finding Nemo. And this!

A life-sized (for real this time) replica of hump back whale.

I had really wanted to check out the Sydney Fish Market because I had heard it was nuts (busy) and cool to see. True on both accounts!

It was an easy walk from Darling Harbour and, ever so conveniently, Messina Gelato was right on the way. Three (double) scoops of gelato in 48 hours: CHECK!

We weren't in the market for any fish, either ready-to-eat or grocery style, but if we were this is definitely the place to find it.

If you're a fish-ivore this would be a good lunch spot, but you'll have to wrestle gaggles of Chinese tourists for a picnic table. This appears to be a reoccurring theme in Sydney.

Our final aquatic-themed activity for the day was Sea Life Aquarium. Martin and I are big aquarium goers, and I am not one to turn down a shark sighting, so I was happy to help Susanna tick off yet another item on her Sydney bucket list. They had a penguin feeding session just as we got there, so we made a beeline through the place to witness the adorableness of teeny, tiny penguins begging for food like Oliver Twist.

So tragically the aquarium was undergoing a bit of construction, so the resident dugongs were not on display. What is a dugong, you ask? It is a fabulous, big-ass sea cow:

They are crazy marine mammals, similar to a manatee. They are super rare so I honestly don't know if I'll ever get a chance in my life to see them again.

The tragedy of the missing dugongs aside, there was lots of fun fishes and sharks to see.

And platypuses (platypi?):

Quick buggers are not easy to capture on film

And this fine creature of the sea:

Earlier in the semester Susanna did an aquarium shark dive in Sydney, and you better believe I plan to do one someday. They may not be great whites, but when it comes to swimming with sharks I don't discriminate!

By this time we had exhausted all of the fun aquatic things Sydney has to offer, so I headed to the airport to head back north and Susanna went back to studying like the good little student she is.

I'm very glad I went back to Sydney because I definitely hadn't fully experienced it on my first, rainy Christmas trip. I know I barely scratched the surface of it compared to Susanna, who spent the past 4 months tirelessly taking in all this country has to offer. I must admit I am sad to see her back to real life, in Norway, not posting action packed blog posts anymore. I'm afraid that the end of one person's Australian journey might mean the end of mine, and that's a thought far too harsh for me to consider right now.

About Me

No longer in Norway, and with a work ethic that has (de)evolved into one that is downright European, "An American Work Ethic in Norway" has a new name, is in a new country and has a renewed sense of awesome-ivity. I'm back, kicking ass, and being the fabulous Benji that I am.